Not knowing
I’ve always though that being a games analyst must be an easy job but this recent stuff about predicting sales figures of the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 four in four years time… I mean, based on what? We don’t know about any next gen game released beyond spring next year so what exactly are they basing this on? Especially as long-running franchises like Call Of Duty and Assassn’s Creed seem to be running out of steam.

The only games that have even been announced that I think might be relevant in the future are Titanfall and Destiny, and who can say how well they’ll really do? It certainly won’t be long before we see Titanfall 2 go multiformat so neither of them are exclusives really. But I think this is good, I like not knowning the future. I just wish analysts would stop pretending they do.Kong King

Crystal balls
Some interesting predictions from the analysts about the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. Like GC states, the games are the most influential factor, which is invariably difficult to evaluate – long term especially. I think PlayStation 4 will establish an early lead (I feel the price will be significant) and I wouldn’t be surprised if PlayStation 4 outsells Xbox One 3:1 over all territories. Come March 2014 and the launch of Titanfall, that’s when I’d anticipate Xbox One to claw back some of the deficit. I may be one of those interested parties. Meanwhile a lot will hinge on Mario Kart 8 on Wii U in the run up to Easter.

Hopefully all the talk of hardware specs will be done and dusted (even a tech geek like me tires of it) so the games can finally take centre stage. Speaking of which, I’m not hearing great news about Dead Rising 3’s frame rate (Digital Foundry – a stumbling 20 frames per second). That was my pick of the launch line-up on either format – shows how much I know! I reckon I will be proven correct on the sales figures ratio though (a lucky guess).Up4Banter

GC: Dead Rising 3 is still being patched a week before release, so we’ll have to wait and see how the final version turns out.

Ghostly slowdown
So I’ve seen a few reviews of the Xbox One version of Call Of Duty: Ghosts and a lot of them are talking about slowdown in the PlayStation 4 version that’s not in the Xbox One? You didn’t mention anything about slowdown in your review, so can you confirm how the PlayStation 4 is?

It’s a pretty confusing situation because not all the reviews mention it, in fact it’s only American ones as far as I can see and not even all of them. I’m not sure what that means really unless they were playing an older version or the problem is so minor some don’t notice it?Cranston

GC: All we can say is that we never saw any example of slowdown on the PlayStation 4 version, and we played through the entire single-player campaign with it and at least five hours of multiplayer. We only briefly played the single-player on Xbox One (and so may do a Xbox One specific review later) but played its multiplayer for at least five hours as well. So there was plenty of opportunity for comparison between the two.

Town visit
I thought I’d write in about Animal Crossing, having realised I’ve lost more hours to it than I did even to the behemoth that is Skyrim. It really has thoroughly improved on its predecessor. The last few weeks the online aspect has given me some memorable moments of pure gaming goodness.

First, I visited virtual Jenkins’s town via the Dream Suite. Nice work, sir. Then, after getting over the giddy excitement of meeting a celebrity skipping about in his dandy straw boater hat, I visited Jenkins’s sister’s town, and have to ask GC to pass a compliment on to her because it really is an impressive spectacle. Her house is brilliantly creative. I dread to think how long it took her to put together.

But it was all capped this week after meeting up with some other GC readers online and hosting each other in our towns. Having opted for an outfit cross between Eric Cartman authoritaah and Village People policeman, I suspect I’ve inadvertently introduced a new definition of ‘camping’ to online multiplayer though.

I wanted to say thanks to Aaron, PaulVW, and MrZenMaestro for a surreal group visit to my town on Monday night, culminating in us going clubbing and having a group photo by the stage. The hour flew by! It was a real laugh chatting with you chaps, and just pure gaming fun. I hope you enjoyed my town, my log cabin, the Halloween room, the rare Nintendo room, the nudey spa room, and my catchphrase-spouting neighbours! Zen, thanks for that guitar and drum kit! We’ll do it again soon.TheRunawayTrain

Trust no one
I found Tuesday’s news story about the PlayStation 4’s terms and conditions very interesting. I feel my decision to wait and see how things play out over the next year or so before buying a new console vindicated. I agree with GC that Sony would lose a lot of goodwill if they did start to restrict used sales, but it wouldn’t really surprise me if they went and did it anyway.

I remember a Microsoft mouthpiece promising games journalists that they would not allow publishers to release broken games which would then need to be patched at a later date, this was back when the original Xbox was launched.

It’s a good example to show that we can’t really trust these large corporations to keep to promises made. If they did do a U-turn on the sale of used software after they had built up a large install base I think a lot of gamers would just learn to live with it, exactly like the vast majority have done with patches and whitheld contentmitchell
PS: No one says there’s lovley, we say ‘tidy mun’.

A few hours more
I wrote in a few weeks ago saying that I’d repurchased GTA V after selling my launch day copy after only a couple of hours of gameplay. It’s rare that I go back and purchase a previously owned ‘anything’, so I’ve surprised myself again this week by buying another Wii U. I sold my launch day console shortly after Xmas last year due to an overwhelming feeling of indifference towards it and the games at the time.

However, various previews and articles on Super Mario World 3D have reawakened my interest. I can clearly recall the endless hours put in to the Mario All-Stars pack on my brother’s SNES; likewise the jaw-dropping awe when I switched on Super Mario 64 for the first time, and more recently simply appreciating the sheer level of quality from both Super Mario Galaxies.

I’ve nothing to go on but gut instinct and optimism but I’m hoping that this new Mario game, above the other recent Mario outings, sparks a small sense of nostalgic excitement again.

Add Zelda: The Wind Waker (which I originally never completed) and you can now play games off-screen (which means I can at least be in the same room as Mrs303) makes the Wii U an attractive proposition again. I’ve got no interest in the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One so I don’t feel as if I’m missing out on anything. If I never see another screenshot of a first person Call of Warfare-esque next gen shooter or photorealistic driving sim I’ll be happy.Phil303

Moving over
As I remember somebody mentioning it in the Inbox recently hopefully this link will help. As external, or the ability to replace internal hard drives, will be especially important for the next gen hopefully an easier method of data transfer will appear than Microsoft’s awful, and frankly expensive, transfer cable will be commonplace. Cloud-based possibly I suspect?

I’m personally excited for the next gen as I’m in the fortunate position to be receiving each console on their respective release days. I think the quickest I’ve managed to get a new console before was about five or six months for the Xbox 360 and all it’s ‘Red Ring of Death’ glory.

As I’ve been solely an Xbox 360 gamer for the entirety of this generation I’m particularly looking forward to see how each new console performs. I was a huge fan of the PlaySation 2 but the Xbox, and especially Halo LAN days with friends, swayed me towards the Xbox 360 since.

Can I also say a big thank you to the numerous and excellent pieces written by the GC faithful ever since E3. I’ve been extremely impressed by the quality and variety of all the Hot Topic entries and Reader’s Features to have graced these pages over the last few months. My congratulations to you all, I just wish I could articulate my thoughts as well as you have done, long may it continue.

I hope for GC the next few weeks of next gen consoles and games provides you with much more fun than frustration. I’d guess this would be as busy a time as you’ve had for many a year.NCD

Pokémon 1,001
Its probably been asked a thousand times, but why don’t Nintendo release a Pokémon game for the Wii U? (And I mean a proper one not a spin-off like Arena or Pinball.) I’m sure it would boost sales of the console massively!evil_scoff

GC: This has been a topic since the N64 days but Nintendo has shown no interest in the concept beyond cheaply made spin-offs such as Pokémon XD. The huge cost of making a home console version of the size and complexity of the portable games is likely to be the primary reason. But also the fact that the portable games are still selling extremely well and they won’t want to risk any radical shake-up that could change that.

Inbox also-rans
The IDC predictions of the current (last?) generation console sales were probably based on the assumption that customers would only have to buy one Xbox 360 each. What fools they were.Magnumstache

Will you be reviewing The Last Door? I really trust GCs unbiased reviews of games so would be helpful!ZKC

GC: To be honest we’ve never heard of it until now but it does look interesting. But we’re afraid we’re super busy with Christmas reviews at the moment. But there’s never much released in December so we’ll use that as an opportunity to review less high profile titles.

This week’s Hot Topic
With the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 out in just a couple of weeks (the PS4 is this Friday in the US) this weekend’s Inbox asks which next gen launch game you’re most looking forwards to.

You can find a complete list here, including both exclusives and multiformat titles, but which ones do you find the most interesting? Have you already pre-ordered any and are you prepared to put up with limitations in terms of either gameplay or graphics because they’re launch games?

What do you think of the launch line-ups of both consoles and how do you think they compare to the launch of previous consoles? Are there any obvious omissions you’re disappointed in and are you looking forward to any of the downloadable games, as well as just retail?